Daily Times

KARACHI: The Sindh High Court (SHC) has issued notices in a contempt of court application to FIA Deputy Director Kamran Ataullah for violating its order.

The court has directed the officer to refrain from taking any coercive action against the country’s top stock brokerage house – AKD Securities – or harassing its officials and asked him to appear before it on February 10, failing which the case would be heard and decided in his absence.

The divisional bench of Sindh High Court issued notices to Ataullah in the contempt of court application filed by AKD Securities Ltd for violating the court order wherein it had restrained the FIA officials from taking any coercive action against the AKD Securities.

The officials of FIA had raided the office of AKD and registered a false FIR and arrested its directors. The FIA staff led by Inspector Siraj Panwhar has raided the offices of AKD securities on January 4, 2015 and humiliated the senior officials and harassed the company’s employees, including the women staff.

They handcuffed CEO Farid Alam, Director Haji Iqbal and CFO Tariq Ghumra and dragged them to the lock-up and registered an FIR against them in a fake case that had nothing to do with the actual case of EOBI’s assets plundering by former chairman Zafar Iqbal Gondal. Since the lodging of the FIR, the FIA team had been in a fix, as it could not find a single piece of evidence against the detained officials of AKD Securities, sources said.

The judicial magistrate had also refused to extend FIA remand of the detainees due to its failure to gather any proof against AKD securities and had sent the officials into judicial custody. The FIA sources said that even the FIA’s investigating officer has got fed up due to constant failure in the case. The bail application of the three officials would come up before the SHC today.